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Published: October 10th 2013
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Byron Bay, a backpackers Mecca just three hours south of Brisbane, into the neighbouring state of New South Wales. It seemed everyone we spoke to, whether they were young or old, hippies or 'square,' only had good things to say about Byron Bay. We were met off the greyhound by our hostel, Cape Byron Lodge. Once again we'd been seduced by offerings of free wifi and pancakes, and of course it helped it was one of the cheaper backpackers in Byron Bay. The hostel was about a 15 minute walk away from all the action so after checking in, we wondered back into town to do some shopping and to see what all the fuss was about.
Byron Bay has a remarkable laid back feel to it - this is Australia though so that's nothing new - but even for Aussie standards this place was practically horizontal. The people were very friendly, chilled out and welcoming - there's your fair share of tie dye loving, 1960's throwbacks which probably goes some way to explaining that. The town also has a lot of vintage and boutique shops, which we enjoyed having a look around. Then when you add on Byron Bay's
long, crescent-shaped beach, offerings of good surf and the trademark lighthouse perched atop of the cape, it soon becomes clear why Byron Bay is so popular.
After our stroll, we returned to the hostel for dinner before reacquainting ourselves that evening with some guys we'd meet further up the coast - Quentin and the three Scottish chaps, Cameron, Jason and Nick. A few glasses of goon later and a group of us decided to go to 'Cheeky Monkeys,' a tacky backpacker bar not really in keeping with the town. Once inside it was pretty awful; everyone grinding and gyrating on each other on table tops to chart music. In fact, it was so grotesque that the only thing to do was to well... dance horrendously and not take yourself too seriously. It turned out to be a funny night, a little hazy when looking back but all in all it was good to catch up with the boys again.
The next morning we gorged ourselves on our free pancakes and took a long, leisurely walk to go to the lighthouse. The sun was shining again and we could see a pod of dolphins and the odd whale out
to sea but sadly they were much too far away to get over excited about. We wanted to go up inside the lighthouse but the tours were finished for the day on account of the guide being sick. Instead we made our way back towards the town via an inland track. It was a good walk, maybe three hours to the lighthouse and back to Byron Bay so by the time we arrived we'd worked up an appetite. Dominos pizza had an offer on for $5 which was proved too good to resist so we tucked into a pepperoni pizza on the beach, enjoying the sunshine and the rolling waves. Before returning back to the hostel, we took a detour to see Quentin and the Scottish chaps. Between the six of us, we managed to piece together the previous night and had a laugh at each others expense. Then the boys and I took to commandeering their hostel ping pong table. I was as competitive as ever, seeking a new challenger if I won or demanding a rematch when beaten. I must have played over a dozen games before Sonya dragged me away.
The following day we were taking
a day trip with the gang to Nimbin, a small hippy community two hours inland from Byron Bay. We boarded the bus which was blaring out the The Doors as we set off on our way. We arrived in Nimbin at 12:30pm and only had three hours before the bus departed. It turned out this was more than enough time to keep entertained. We'd walked down the main high street which it turned out was about 100m long so we crossed the road to walk along the other side. It was a peculiar little place. There's tripy, psychedelic street art everywhere promoting 1960's ideals of peace, love and of course, getting high. There are shops selling cannabis paraphernalia, there's a cannabis museum but there's also a lot of normal souvenir, vintage clothes and coffee shops. We passed the time visiting almost every store. Oddly enough there was even a candle factory which you could visit. Seeing as we had seen all there was to see of Nimbin within half an hour, we did actually go and take a tour around the candle factory. It was quite interesting actually and at least it killed a bit of time. We grabbed a
latte while we waited for our bus to depart. As we waited, it was clear no one was particularly impressed with Nimbin, within our group at least. It's subculture just didn't resonate with us I suppose. After the long bus ride back to Byron Bay, Sonya and I grabbed a bite to eat before making our way back to the hostel for a quiet night watching movies.
In the morning the heavens opened and rain lashed down until mid afternoon. We passed the time doing research for our time in China and when the sun finally appeared, Sonya and I embarked upon the bike rode we'd been planning since we arrived in Byron Bay. The hostel rented bicycles free of charge so we were looking forward to getting out and exploring. The bikes had definitely seen better days - I was onto my third rusty mountain bike by the time we'd got off the drive. The first one, the seat wouldn't adjust and I couldn't pedal without my shoes scrapping on the ground. The second seemed better until the pedal fell off as we made our way to leave so it was third time lucky with the purple coloured,
'Gekko' model which came with a novel back-pedalling braking system. Sonya got stuck with a bright pink bicycle with woven basket on the front but she was happy enough that it wasn't falling to pieces. Given the issues we'd had getting out of the hostel Sonya insisted on us wearing helmets and without hesitation, I agreed. Looking the epitome of uncool, we set off. It was a damp, grey day but every so often the sun would peek out from behind the clouds and with these beams of sunlight came an a sudden upturn in our enthusiasm; we'd have a short sprint race or I'd ride off curbs trying hopeless to get some air out of the Gekko. We continued riding towards the lighthouse but without any gears it proved too difficult to scale the steep hills. We turned back heading for Byron Bay and enjoyed being on the flat once again with the the sea breeze on our backs. After losing our bearings up little side roads and holding up traffic in the middle of town, we decided to call it a day and head back to the hostel. It had been a nice way to see some more
of Byron Bay and I was thankful we and the bikes had made it back in one piece. That evening we were on the bus to Sydney. It was a 12 hour journey throughout the night so we prepared a meal, got some snacks and psyched ourselves up for the challenge of trying to sleep on the bumpy greyhound bus.
We'd enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of Byron Bay, its character and its beauty but I was eager to get to Sydney now. I had many fond memories of the city where I'd spent three months on my year out and couldn't wait for Sonya to get to know the place which I spent so long bending her ear about.
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